


Sometimes You Have To Run Before You Can Walk

by EndlessNepenthe



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Peter has the time of his life, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 09:14:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17464682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EndlessNepenthe/pseuds/EndlessNepenthe
Summary: In which Tony is a stressed man trying to protect a child and Peter is having the best day of his life.Or, Tony tests a new prototype in less than ideal circumstances, Iron Peter is born.





	Sometimes You Have To Run Before You Can Walk

“Hey Mr. Stark.”

“Mm?” Tony doesn’t pause his work, arms buried up to the elbows in a metal contraption with an unknown purpose, fingers working at some delicate wiring. He frowns, wrinkling his nose, when the wires spark, quickly pulling his hands back.

“Can we… Go out?”

Tony pauses, turning towards Peter, who sat on the counter swinging his legs, obviously having finished making the refills for his web.

“Outside,” Peter clarifies, “For some air.”

Tony raises an eyebrow, crossing his arms across his chest.

“I, uh, thought it would be great to go and get some fresh air, not that the air in here is not fresh, but I thought it would be great for us to walk outside a little and get some sunshine and it’s okay if you don’t want to, I shouldn’t have said anything, okay maybe we should get back to work, I mean if you want--”

“Yeah, okay,” Tony interrupts, “Sure.”

Peter blinks, mouth slightly open, as Tony turns off the contraption he was working on.

“Yeah, we can go out, grab a bite, I don’t know, walk in the park, whatever,” Tony says, “You’re getting really antsy anyway. I’ll change real quick and then we can leave. FRI, tell Happy he’s driving.”

A little dazed, Peter trails after Tony, letting the billionaire herd him into the elevator. Mechanically, he sits down on the sofa when Tony tells him to, watching as Tony heads towards his room.

Soon, Tony is practically strutting back in an outfit of solid black - straight cut sweatpants, a comfy looking sweater that hugs his torso, even his running shoes are completely black. It’s odd for Peter to see Tony in such casual clothes, clothes that Peter himself would usually wear; for the longest time, Peter had assumed Tony’s closet consisted of only suits and black tank tops (and maybe a few t shirts).

“Ready?”

Peter shakes off his shock, letting his usual energetic and excited self take over, genuinely looking forward to being out in the sunshine after spending the past day in the lab with Tony. “Yeah! Let’s go!”

They slide into the car that Happy has idling outside, Tony riding shotgun and Peter in the back.

“Food first or walk?” Tony asks.

“Walk!” Peter chirps excitedly, happily eyeing the afternoon sunshine.

“To a park, I guess,” Tony tells Happy, shrugging.

Happy drives them to a large park that is near the edge of the city, where not many people frequent. Tony thankfully doesn’t have any of his flashy sunglasses that, along with a sharp suit, practically make Tony Stark stand out. Peter is nearly vibrating in his excitement, looking ready to jump out of the car and climb a tree.

“Give us a minute,” Tony tells Peter, who is more than willing to comply.

Peter hops lightly out of the car, carefully closing the door behind him. He breathes deeply in satisfaction, the deep earthy smell of nature and fresh clean air filling his lungs. Glancing back at the car, he catches a glimpse of Happy nodding at Tony before the billionaire is stepping out to join Peter.

Tony locks eyes with Peter for a moment, smiling and tilting his chin forward, toward the path leading into the park. Peter grins, bounding away with his arms spread wide.

They walk in silence, each lost in their own thoughts, birds and insects chirping in the background. Squirrels dart around, tree leaves rustling beneath their small feet.

Tony notices that Peter is much more relaxed, basking in the warm sunlight, an easy smile perched on his lips as his wide eyes wander, wondering at the forest that’s alive with so many different sounds. Belatedly, Tony realizes that the large symphony of sounds might be overwhelming for Peter’s super enhanced hearing, but the teenager seems to be perfectly fine, occasionally tilting his head and closing his eyes as he listens to something Tony probably cannot hear. Giant boulders of rocks are sparsely scattered a few meters away from the path, and Peter finds great joy in climbing them, running and leaping to land lightly on top. Sometimes, he even sprints at trees with thick trunks, kicking off them and somersaulting high through the air to land back on his feet with a wide grin.

With the way Peter is acting, Tony can’t help but compare him to a puppy that’s going on a walk for the first time.

Peter notices that Tony seems to be much more alive, tanned skin glowing in the bright sunlight, eyes alight with joy and peace. His shoulders are less tense, steps light as a cat’s, posture much straighter but more relaxed than ever. Posture was the first thing Peter had noticed about Tony Stark; whenever the billionaire was standing still, Peter would marvel at how beautiful Tony’s posture was: spine gorgeously arched, feet lightly but firmly planted, shoulders perfectly level, chin held up straight and proud. Even something as simple as standing was a work of art, delicate but perfectly balanced. Despite not wearing a suit (whether it be a suit and tie, or the Iron Man armour), Tony’s posture alone was powerful enough to command attention.

Peter works to throw more blissful, happy smiles at Tony, pleasantly surprised whenever Tony would grace Peter with a small smile of his own. Content looked good on Tony, and Peter wished content would replace the bottomless sorrow that always lingered in Tony’s eyes.

It goes eerily quiet for a moment, the only sound being the leaves rustling in the gentle breeze. Peter feels a chill run down the back of his neck, despite it being a warm summer day. He pivots on one foot, instinctively glancing warily into the forest to his left.

Tony and Peter both freeze in place, eyes scanning the forest around them. Not wasting any more time, Tony reaches up and double taps his arc reactor, pulling Peter to his chest and turning his back to the direction Peter had subconsciously glanced at earlier. A suit materializes around Tony, metal seeming to climb swiftly over the billionaire’s clothes, forming an armour with a design that Peter had never seen before.

Peter only has time to gasp before bullets are bouncing metallically off the armour. He blinks, shocked; if Tony had been even half a second slower, they would both be full of bullet holes.

Tony growls in frustration, the sound muffled and sounding much more threatening through the suit. Peter watches as Tony raises his hands, the suit receding from his forearms, and makes a gesture, ending with a brief point at Peter. He frowns, confused, before he hears repulsors signature to Iron Man firing in the distance.

Tony continues standing as a shield between Peter and the constant barrage of bullets from the depths of the forest, and Peter finally spots flashing gold and dull red flying through the air towards them, attaching themselves to his body. Peter grunts lowly from the impact of each new piece flying into position, his enhanced strength thankfully keeping him from stumbling or falling.

In mere seconds, Peter stands in one of Tony’s suits, blinking rapidly at the blue holograms glowing to life in front of his eyes.

“Hello, Peter,” FRIDAY intones.

Peter sucks in a big breath and practically squeals, “Ohmygod Mr. Stark I’m in one of your suits?!?!”

“Yeah yeah you can freak out about it later,” Tony’s dry voice says from inside the helmet on Peter’s head. “We’ve got some baddies to take down.” He flies away from Peter, heading in the direction of the bullets.

“Gosh Mr. Stark how do you see all of these at once,” Peter mutters, eyes darting around, trying to pay equal attention to every hologram floating in front of his face.

“Divide attention by priority,” Tony clips out, the sound of him firing a repulsor blast reaching Peter through the intercoms, “And practice. FRI, cut back on display in Mark 45, vitals and suit only.”

All of the holograms in front of Peter disappear; a hologram of Peter’s vitals reappears on his left, and a full body image of the suit on his right.

“Okay, don’t help me,” Tony grumbles.

“Sorry Mr. Stark, I’m coming!”

“Don’t worry about it, kid. I’ve got it. Try not to destroy my suit.”

“I’ll be careful, I promise,” Peter assures him, voice nervous.

“Don’t stress too much about it.” Peter can hear Tony’s smirk even if he can’t see it. “It’s one of my toughest suits.”

Peter wobbles happily through the air on the repulsor jets, stray bullets pinging off the armour. He accidentally tips too far to the right and knocks himself out of the delicate balance he just barely maintained to remain airborne, the suit smashing through some trees as it plummets to the ground like a comet.

“Oops,” Peter winces, sitting up, ready to apologize for dirtying and possibly scratching Tony’s suit.

The sound of something much bigger than a hand held gun going off echoes through the forest, and Peter hears Tony inhale sharply, then grunt in pain.

“Mr. Stark?”

“Shit,” Tony growls lowly, and if it were any other circumstance, Peter would joke that Tony shouldn’t be saying words like that.

“Mr. Stark, are you okay?”

“Huh it’s really slow to redirect, I see,” Tony mutters to himself, “FRI, make a note for me to work on nanoparticle function for the suit when I get back.”

“Mr. Stark??” Peter repeats, voice rising in pitch.

“What?”

“Are you… Okay?”

“Always,” Tony replies a little too quickly, “This suit’s a prototype, and there seems to be an… Issue.”

Peter hears the sound of Tony punching or kicking something, followed by the clatters of guns falling to the ground and men groaning in pain.

“Kid.”

“Yeah?”

“Make sure nothing hits your left arm.”

Peter opens to his mouth to ask why Tony was so oddly specific about which arm, but no sound comes out when the left gauntlet of the suit he’s in detaches itself and flies off in Tony’s direction. “Okay,” he huffs, folding his right armoured arm over his left, but no more bullets fly out of the forest.

“Police are coming.” Tony flies back to Peter, landing with a solid thud. “Never seen anything like this,” Tony laughs, teasing, “The great Iron Man, wobbling around like a toddler learning how to walk for the first time. You’ll ruin my reputation, kid.”

“It’s harder than it looks,” Peter sulks, still sitting on the soil.

“Good thing I have autopilot.”


End file.
